We have mixed emotions whenever we hear a statistic about how shockingly low condom usage is in this country. On one hand, of course, we are always reading about how pathetic Americans are in bed compared to the horny Eurotrash, and not using a condom is, duh, one way of combating that problem. On the other hand, ahem, genital warts. At $416 million a year in revenue, the condom industry in America is on par, size wise, with the fake-nail industry or the Koosh ball industry, and market-leader Trojan is trying to combat this with a commercial intended to break the "stigma" of condom-buying wherein a hot blonde in a bar full of (literal) pigs is the happy recipient of a holler from the one (evolved and condom-carrying!) homo sapien. (According to the New York Times, the spot is evidence that the "tone of the company's promotions is moving away from 'Beavis and Butthead' and toward 'Sex and the City'", which we guess means the newspaper has one writer on staff who has actually avoided ever seeing SATC, which means he is our hero.) Anyway, the spot sounds like it is standard beer-commercial funny, but! In one of those "Oh my god, seriously, Christian Right?" moves, Fox and CBS have banned the spot on grounds that it reminds the audience that condoms prevent pregnancy.
In a written response to Trojan, though, Fox said that it had rejected the spot because, "Contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy."
Uh, right. Because married couples with one partner who got AIDS through a drug transfusion are the only types of customers a decent family network should be allowed to target. No wonder everyone we know has HPV.Pigs With Cell Phones, But No Condoms [NY Times]
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